Indonesia Calls for More G20 Action on Climate Change

BALI, KOMPAS.com - Group of 20 chair Indonesia warned environment officials from the world's leading economies Wednesday, Aug. 31 they must act together to combat a warming planet or risk plunging it into "uncharted territory".

The call came at a one-day meeting on the resort island of Bali, at the end of a month in which more than 1,000 people died in Pakistan from flooding blamed on climate change and a crippling drought exacerbated by a record heat wave spread across half of China.

In opening remarks, Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar told delegates "global environmental problems require global solutions", otherwise the planet could end up in a situation "where no future will be sustainable".

"We cannot hide from the fact that the world is facing increasingly compounding challenges," she said, referencing energy price spikes and global food shortages.

Also read: Indonesia Urges G20 Countries to Support Coral Reef Restoration

"We know that climate change could become an amplifier and multiplier of the crises. We cannot solve those global environmental problems on our own."

She added that climate change "would not only wipe out all development progress that has been achieved over past decades, particularly in emerging economies, but it would also propel us over an environmental tipping point into uncharted territory where no future will be sustainable".

Some of the world's top economies and emerging nations are being increasingly hit by record heat, flash floods, and droughts -- phenomena that scientists say will only become more frequent and intense due to climate change.

In attendance at the meeting were US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Britain's Climate Minister Alok Sharma, and officials from India, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union among others.

A joint communique was expected to be agreed upon at the talks.